"The reaction has been very, very positive from publishers," the PlayCast man told MCV. "To them, it's a new way to market back catalogue.

"If you're a movie studio, you have your film play in the cinemas, then three months later it's out on DVD. Three months later again it's on Sky Box Office, then on Sky Movies, then two years later it's out on terrestrial. There are six or seven different windows to monetise your product.

"But if you're an EA or an Activision, you are restricted by one burst of seven or eight weeks when you release a new game in GAME or HMV before it falls off the cliff. You've spent millions of dollars on it, but only one real opportunity to make money back.

"We allow publishers to keep that retail window, but after a few months they can put it on PlayCast a la carte…We're essentially bringing the pay TV model to games."